Producers

Producer of the Month

Featured Producer - Women's Bean Project

Just Fare Market carries products from Women’s Bean Project, a nationally-recognized social enterprise based in Denver, CO that provides transitional employment to women attempting to break the cycle of chronic unemployment and poverty.

Women’s Bean Project believes all women have the power to transform their lives through employment. They hire women who are chronically unemployed and they teach them to work by making nourishing products that we sell across the US. Through their work at Women’s Bean Project, the women learn to stand tall, find their purpose and break the cycle of poverty.

As a child during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, Josepha “Jossy” Eyre faced starvation, terror and the unspeakable trauma of losing siblings during the bombardment – all veiled in secrecy by adults too afraid to speak openly.

The experiences left Eyre with a profound sense of hopelessness, something she recognized among the homeless women she encountered years later as a volunteer at a local shelter for women.

How, Eyre wondered, could she help these women achieve independence and self-sufficiency? The answer came in 1989 in the unexpected form of beans when Jossy founded Women’s Bean Project.

Eyre saw that while the shelter kept women safe, it could not help them make lasting changes in their lives. Eyre bought $500 worth of beans and put two homeless women to work making bean soup – the first step in building the social enterprise they are today. The training opportunities have expanded dramatically over 25 years, and their annual operating budget has grown from $6,100 to over $1.7 million.

Instead of a one-time handout, women acquire the tools needed to sustain themselves and their families for a lifetime. Women’s Bean Project teaches “soft skills”– the non-technical skills, abilities and traits that employers say are lacking in entry-level applicants.

About 70% of each woman’s time in the program is devoted to learning the fundamental workplace competencies required by employers, such as attendance, punctuality, work-ethic and attention to detail. By paying participants a wage, the program helps women meet their basic needs.

The program subsidizes bus passes, provides resources for affordable housing and childcare, arranges for free or discounted medical care, and works with banks to help women set up direct deposit, checking and saving accounts. Women are also referred to outside providers for additional services.

When there is an opportunity to change one woman’s life, you change her family’s life. Women’s Bean Project is creating a huge ripple effect, not just within the families of the women they serve, but in the community as a whole.

Over the last 25 years, the Bean Project has provided stepping stones to self-sufficiency to approximately 800 women and has positively affected the lives of more than 18,000 women and children.